Hopefully more people will look at this separate thread and perhaps join in with a view.
On another thread, Mark mentioned that immersing films in small sections can close/improve green emulsion scratches. The idea being that the water narrows the emulsion lines.
Personally, i have not heard of it before and wondered if anyone has had success as water is pretty much the enemy of film.

Personally I have never heard of allowing water anywhere near film,but I am open to know who has.I don’t think I would have the patience to actually repair a large portion of film bit by bit with water .
I know some collectors use WD40 to clean preserve their film but I believe this would act as a water repellent,not that I have ever used it.
I would have thought you could easily rub the image away or streak it by wiping the water away.
Still an interesting post,we shall see.

Treatment of emulsion scratches by re-washing
Immersing a film in water softens the emulsion, which swells. The swollen emulsion causes the edges of the cut gelatine to anneal and as the film dries, the edges stay together. Deep scratches can only be slightly improved, and if any emulsion is lost, the effect may be negligible. Nevertheless, the general effect of soaking film and redrying can be dramatic and a mass of tiny scratches vanishes to leave much cleaner appearing image.

Several manufacturers have made special small machines for this purpose. The principle of water washing is generally to keep the film in the water for as short a time as possible and wet only the top layer of emulsion. The principle of water soaking to anneal scratches is to soften and swell the emulsion as much as possible. In practice, laboratories with special machinery use a single compromise operation to wash and clean at the same time.

Re-Washing: How To Do It

Several formulations have been suggested by film manufacturers to promote the swelling of the emulsion, anneal the scratches and then to restabilise the emulsion to re-establish the best conditions for image permanence.

Kodak has a recommended process called RW1.
A solution of approximately 50 gms per litre of each of sodium sulphite and borax produces a rapid and even softening of almost all emulsions [a high pH is essential] and concentration and temperature is not very critical. Most laboratories use a process temperature of 20C, followed by a wash for 10 minutes at 20C and a final rinse stage of 1 minute at 20C in a 500:1 Photoflo solution to help uniform drying.

Commercial colour processing laboratories often use a process solution from the ECN2 process, the Prebath for rewashing black and white archive film, as it is already available in solution. This is a high pH sodium sulphate solution, and very effective as a rewash process. Any of these processes are good for black and white film of any period provided there is adequate washing following the softening solution. The wash must be as efficient as the usual final wash for a black and white process producing film for an archive. This aspect is covered on the chapter on Processing. A wetting agent rinse can be used after the wash.

Rewashing subtractive incorporated coupler colour films to anneal scratches is a far more complex problem. The re-wash solution can be any of those listed above although ECN2 Prebath is most commonly used, and the annealing process seems to be just as effective as with black and white with most colour films. However, in order to preserve the dyes for the future, most colour processes use a final rinse or stabiliser solution to buffer the gelatine, leave a specific internal pH, or carry out some final stabilising procedure - the dyes of most film need this to ensure optimum dye stability. The answer is to use, as a final stage, after the re-wash solution and water wash, the same process solution as was used in the original process for this film stock. Clearly, this requires identification of the film stock and knowledge of the original process. Some last solutions were pH buffers and a wetting agent, some were formaldehyde, which hardened the emulsion and restricted the breakdown of some dyes or residual couplers, and some were solutions of specialised stabiliser chemicals. One formulation used as a final rinse in the event of no information could be as follows - it is similar to that used for many colour processes between 1960 and 1990:
Formaldehyde 37% 10 ml
Wetting Agent [e.g. Photoflo] 5 ml
pH adjusted to 4.0
Water to 1L

Thanks Paul, Mark.

Paul, a question.
How do you later dry a film of considerable length?
Or, have I misunderstood the process?

Maurice its from brianpritchard.com website, i have not read the whole article, just presented an introduction to the site for other forum members who are curious, like me, as to whether it could work. It looks to be well written by someone who knows a lot about this subject ........

As I said in the other thread I've seen it work but it's a process that needs care to be done successfully, I've contacted the person who showed me the process with a more detailed description, he may reply and if he does I'll post it here, Mark

Thank you Paul,certainly an interesting read .Following on from your post the process can be found in the “Restoration of Motion Picture Film” ( sec 25 page 255)this is certainly a new one on me.
Having read the appropriate sections I don’t think I shall be giving it a try ,but you learn something new everyday .

Blimey as I've said before people only read what they want to read, I'm out, Mark.

Sorry have I said something out of place?

I reckon if a film is badly scratched you dont have much to lose by giving it a go .
Cheers Mark for bringing it to attention, i hadn't heard of it myself prior to you mentioning it, very interesting.

Water is the enemy of film, yet if you have ever developed rolls of film for still cameras, you spend a lot of time washing it in water, the more you wash it the harder the emulsion becomes, and helps prevent the negative from scratching. I remember when I used to develop film, giving 40 immersions in a tank before changing the water, and that was changed several times. Then you wiped off the excess with a squeegee, and hung up to dry. I wonder why rolls of film for still cameras never suffered from water damage?

Finally, we had to put Wetting Agent into the final rinse to prevent drying marks on the negative. That needs to be taken into consideration if trying this method, You can buy Wetting agent online.

Quote: Robert Crewdson wrote in post #13

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.....I remember when I used to develop film, giving 40 immersions in a tank before changing the water, and that was changed several times. Then you wiped off the excess with a squeegee, and hung up to dry...

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Happy days Maurice.